A look back, a look ahead

2011. What a year. In my world, it was an amazing year. It definitely didn't start that way! It started with a whole lot more questions than I had answers to. My wife's part-time youth ministry position was cut by the church, for no other reason than money. We were deeply hurt by this choice, and it led me to wrestle with plenty of questions as to what God was doing in this church, whether I was supposed to be there, and ultimately, if serving full-time in church ministry was truly what I was supposed to be doing. Deep huh? Well, to make an extremely long and complicated story short (just ask if you want the long story), I'm still serving the church, and while not all of the questions have been answered, most have.

So the year started with lots of questions and a whole lot of trust in God to provide, and in His own unique and perfect way, He did. We found out in March that we were going to have a second child! Which was an answer to many prayers we prayed, and prayers we didn't realize we were praying! Throughout the course of the months, we saw God's hand directing and leading us in ways we didn't expect.

Then came the last 2 months of the year. The unexpected blessings. On November 21st, Emily Claire Harmann entered the world. Of course, she has been a great blessing and joy bringer to our family! But we were overwhelmed with love, gifts and food from the congregation and our friends. When Christmas came around, the gifts we received were more than usual. And usually, I'm thinking about how unnecessary all of the gift cards and other gifts are, but are very sweet. This year, I'm thankful and rejoicing, because it is a reminder of how God provides in unexpected, surprising to me ways.

So looking ahead to 2012, what do I expect? I expect laughter. I expect joy. I expect challenges. I expect tears. I expect God to work in ways that He's already planned out, but not in the ways I expected. And I will do my best to look for His hand of blessing in my life and rejoice every time I see it!